Force Efficiency Drill

This past week I was working in our Oyata Te class (Shihan Dai) with intermediate and advanced principles of Tuite.  During this session we were all discussing the direction the chest faces in relation to the Principle of ‘X’.  This is what we refer to as Force Efficiency and is the sixth basic principle of tuite.  As we discussed how different stances point your chest in a different direction, Becky (one of my higher ranking long term students) recommended when we do our begging warm up drills in class, instead of calling out ‘Right Back Stance’, ‘Left Forward Stance’ and other combinations, I should call out a direction that I want their chest to point to.  BRILLIANT!!!  This is what I love about Oyata Te, everyone throwing out ideas and training together and Becky comes up with one of the most brilliant ideas I’ve heard in a while.  So here is the drill as it is evolving in my head since the brilliant spark of inspiration by Becky.

   

Above are just a few examples of stances and the direction of the chest.  The left one is basically what we call a Left Back Stance or Left Cat Stance position.  You see that, if the top is considered North, then the chest is aimed at North West.  In the middle you have a Ready Position but you could say other stances have this North position such as Attention, Natural Stance, Forward Stance (Seisan) and Horse Stance.  The three above are obviously not all the stances represented and obviously you can reorient any stance to face any direction.

Phase One - Orientation

Armed with this knowledge, it is time to make your students (and maybe even yourself) a little more aware of how to apply their Force Efficiency.  As an example, have all the students’ line up and for the geographically challenged, point toward the North wall.  Or you could just for the exercise name the front of the dojo as North.  Most people are rarely aware of the compass directions once inside a building so it doesn’t really matter.  Now, instead of calling out stances for them to practice their foundational drills, call out directions and explain that when you call North they must pick a stance and have them settle into any stance with their chest square to North.  As a group they may be tempted to mimic each other as typically, instructors call out a stance and everyone does the same thing in formation.  In this Force Efficiency training, every student could be slightly different, as long as all of their chests face the same direction.  Explain this and stress to them that different is fine.  You are trying to make them more aware of their chest direction.  It doesn’t matter if their neighbor is in a different stance.  No cheating off your neighbor. J  Don’t worry about hands.  You might even have them close their eyes then open after they are aligned.  That way they are not tempted to follow their peers.

Phase Two – Hands and Feet

Now that they have the idea down, start everything from the Natural Stance.  We train most of our starting conflict scenarios as starting from a Natural Stance.  The thought is that most confrontations that the average person will find themselves in doesn’t start off like a tournament bout in fighting stances, but that is a discussion for another blog (or just read four or five of Tony’s).  Everyone starts in Natural Stance facing the front of the room.  Pick a technique you are going to practice such as Upper Forearm Strike (Upper Block for those outside our school).  Tell everyone that is the technique and that they will execute the technique while moving into a stance that points their chest to the correct direction you call.  So instead of counting out Ichi, Ni, San, Shi…… I will be calling out directions.  After each call, I will review everyone’s chest position and make any corrections, then state ‘Return’, then they will return to the Natural Stance to simulate the next attack.  There is no ‘wrong answer’ of a stance as long as their chest is pointing to the correct heading.  Well, crane stance might be a wrong answer as it is really only practiced for balance. J

A little background about how ‘maybe’ we have differed for a while than most Karate type schools.  We used to do the standard hand techniques in formation like everyone else.  Everyone standing in a horse stance and doing strikes, punches, blocks and such in horse stance but one day Tony and I discussed how this deep horse stance was rarely ever a stance that you struck from, or at least not in the manner we were doing it.  So we started having the students do it only in formation until they tested for 9th Kyu.  The idea was, they learned early the deep stance and built up a little leg stamina.  Once they reached 9th Kyu, we then moved them to a natural stance, and the instructor would call out what stance we would be moving to such as a Right Back Stance.  They then would pivot back at a 45 degree angle and execute whatever hand technique or even kick we called, pause for a 2 count, then return to Natural Stance.  We’ve done that for quite a while and think it has worked quite well and is more realistic.  It has made our students a little more practiced and relaxed during combination and tuite practice.  Taika would always say, don’t waste your practice time.  So here we are not just making the students do hands only in a deep stance, they are learning from 9th Kyu on to move their body when they move their hands.

Phase Three – Conservation of Motion

At this point, they are hopefully heading in the correct direction but is it an efficient transfer of stances?  What I mean by that is, I can start in a Natural Stance facing North and get the call for North East.  What is the most efficient stance to get me to North East?  I could do my best ballerina impersonation and pirouette 270 degrees to North East or I could just drop my Right Foot back to a Right Back stance and poof, my chest is aligned.  At this point, start to look for not only correct Force Efficiency but also look for time and energy efficiency.  Conservation of Motion.    

Phase Four – Daily Integration

Now let’s start putting my blogs together. J  I’ve spoken about ‘finding time’ to train before.  Whether you are standing on an elevator or standing in the kitchen, finding time to train when you have work, honey does and just ‘me time’ to worry about is sometimes difficult.  Today, I was playing with this while putting the dishes away.  Yes, I know I’m obsessed and probably a tad bit on the crazy side, but as I put dishes away I was going to every corner of the kitchen….every drawer….every cabinet.  Each time I went to a different location, I tried to use a different stance to square my chest to that object.  After doing about every combination of that, I began trying to offset my chest at a particular angle.  So the first few times I faced the cutlery drawer I had my chest dead parallel to the face of the drawer.  Then I began turning my chest at a 45 degree angle to the face of the drawer as if using the Principle of ‘X’.  Yes I know, I’m crazy.  I won’t even tell you about the exercises I was doing to strengthen my calves while doing this…

To sum up, I see great potential in this exercise and am so proud of the spark from Becky.  You never know where inspiration is going to come from.  I truly believe that this has great potential to prepare my students and myself to better apply the Principles of Tuite and Kyusho. 

Chi Balls of Fire

Since Taika’s death, the question of whether he believed in Chi, Ki and Traditional Chinese Medicine has come up.  In fact, I get questions about it every month or two.  To answer my perspective on this question I need to give those that don’t personally know me a point of reference of my relationship with Taika, as well as another student I am going to quote. Lisa Ohmes and I were close to Taika.  And when I mean close, I don’t just mean in proximity though that was a domino that led to the closeness we had.  Lisa and I took Taika to the bank, drycleaners, DMV, various stores and anything else you can imagine.  We took him to restaurants and sat and ate with him.  We spent hours with him a week talking, and handling his daily life and business.  We had constant conversations with him in our cars, waiting in line at places, during all sorts of regular weekly situations.  I spent time teaching him to shoot, taking him to a range where we both had memberships, and shooting guns.  All this is in addition to the time we both spent in his basement, back yard, garage and dojo training in RyuTe®.  We would even talk on the phone at times.  We spent hours in hospital waiting rooms, and even more in hospitals as test after test was run in his final years.  We talked in these various manners about RyuTe®, members past and present, his wishes for his art, life in general, the United States, Okinawa, family (real and extended), other styles of ‘martial arts’, and a myriad of topics throughout your standard encyclopedia. Though some will take it that way, the purpose here is NOT to brag.  It is to specify that Lisa and I talked to Taika on a regular basis and for many, many years.  Though we certainly didn’t know everything that was floating around in his head, we accumulated a lot of knowledge about him over the years.  One topic that came up several times for both of us was the topic of chi, ki and the mystical energy that is taught by many in the industry.  Absolutely, without a doubt, Taika did NOT subscribe to this.  He considered it ‘Snake Oil Salesmen” techniques.  He would bring this up as he was frequently asked about it while teaching seminars.  He would talk to me and Lisa at length about how it wasn’t any mystical energy that caused his knockouts.  He was striking specific locations on the body, with specific amounts of penetration, at specific angles and with specific follow through.  I can remember him talking about these others who taught and delved into T.C.M. and other such stuff he called nonsense.  I distinctly remember someone asking him if he struck pericardium this or triple warmer that or stomach this before he made his neck strike leading to a knockout.  He proceeded to knock someone unconscious without touching any other point on their body.  None, nada, nill.  Others would comment over the years on how the Bubishi referred to specific times of the day to attack certain organs.  He would laugh and say, “You think I no knock you out at night?”  Or something to that affect.  I personally witnessed the same nerve techniques equally affective at any time of the day.  From day class, to night class, to afternoons at his house, to early mornings at a seminar.  His favorite phrases for these topics were, “Bullshit” and This Stupid”.  How much did it bug him?  I’ll tell you this and won’t name any names, but there once was a high ranking instructor in our style.  This instructor had a previous background in a heavy CHI touting style.  He was supposed to be teaching RyuTe® but Taika found out he was having his students dwell into chi and showing them things that Taika viewd as ‘parlor tricks’.  Taika disaproved each of these with science.  For those that don’t know, Taika was actually a well-educated man who went to college, yes college, for engineering.  (Another tidbit from a conversation in a car).    When this instructor didn’t stop these shenanigans, he was kicked out of the association.  Yes, booted.  A long time instructor, and very high ranking, who failed to listen to Taika and stop teaching chi/ki.  If that doesn’t tell you how he felt, I should just give up at this point. Taika believed in body mechanics and science.  He believed in being fluid and relaxed.  He believed in directing your KINETIC energy to a target, and redirecting there.  I’ve had people ask me to explain things like the curling hand motions in Shiho happo no Te which they perceive as ‘gathering ki’.  I can assure you that ki gathering is not what Taika was doing.  These small hand motions are easily explained in grab releases and positioning.  Taika would be very unhappy with any of his followers heading down the wrong path, and even more unhappy if they were leading others down it.  Some people will never believe me, no matter how hard I preach from the pulpit.   At least I got it off my chest and my conscious is clear. Di

Burn Out

First off, don’t fret.  Burn out happens to pretty much anyone that trains in anything.  It happens to us at work, so why should the recreation we love the most be any different.  Recently, a really close friend has hinted about being burnt out.  It has been quite a while since I got this dreaded feeling about the art, or at least the overwhelming feeling.  I believe I get a ‘tad’ burnt out more frequently but the big burn outs have only happened for me once or twice in my thirty some odd years in budo.

Realize that everyone gets burnt out to varying degrees.  You can’t tell me Taika never did.  I know for a fact he quite frequently got frustrated at a myriad of things from student failure to just the repetitive grind of life.  So knowing that you are by no means alone in your feelings can help.  Everyone knows Taika started training just after WWII and trained till he died in 2012.  But not everyone knows that he quit teaching out of a dojo for a while and was a small engine mechanic during that time.  I’m not saying he quit training, but he did quit teaching. 

Next, try to identify if there is a particular thing that is burning you out?  Or a stack of them?  See what you can do to decrease those things.  Is it the grind of kata?  As a new student, sometimes we start studying things like kata and it doesn’t feel realistic and becomes a grind.  I can remember getting bored with things I was shown and being too afraid to ask the instructor about it.  ‘Ask questions freely…..’ is part of our principles of training but we sometimes put the teachers up on such a pedestal that we can’t say anything to them.  I try to give my students a few little bits of bunkai or reality related to each kata the second we get them all the way through it.  That way they have a little glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel.

Is it the negative people around you?  Is it the negative stories?  There are a myriad of things that can contribute to this common problem.  Those last two are there because, since Taika’s passing, we saw his predictions come true.  There have been a host of disrespectful actions, ego flare ups, and negativity spill out all over the place.  Maybe it’s time to unplug those facebook friends, whose timelines are pissing you off.

Try shifting gears.  If you have had one or two primary weapons you train with for a few years, pick something new.  Go into it with a mindset that you don’t have to master this thing; you are just looking for some variety.  I was myself rather burnt out on bo, my favorite weapon, many years ago.  We were not learning anything new with the weapon, and I wasn’t getting any tutelage, fixups or corrections.  Out of nowhere Taika began training me on some amazing tanbo changes that lit a fire under my gi. 

How about a book?  There are tons of aspects of the arts that most students completely neglect.  Stay in the art by reading some cultural books like Customs and Culture of Okinawa by Gladys Zabilka.  It is out of print now, but you can find numerous used copies on Powells.com, Amazon.com and BarnsandNoble.com.  I found that reading books about Okinawan culture, religion and even the language gave me a greater insight into Taika’s world.  I know for a fact that this opened up several doorways with him for me as I would engage in conversations with him while driving him places that he was at first shocked about.  He didn’t think us American’s understood some things about the islands he came from.  This knowledge caused him to open up and tell me stories about Kita Daito where he grew up.  They gave me a different perspective and helped me through my minor burnt sessions.  You can search for online books on Okinawa, Ryukyu, and other key words and find a ton of topics to read that can be a temporary placeholder for the monotony in your training. 

If nothing seems to work and you are still seriously thinking of taking a Burn Out Hiatus, set a distinct goal.  Make it one month, two months, or something like that.  Place your return date on your calendar and have your friends in the art hold you accountable.  Ensure they understand that during your hiatus, you want their friendship but no mention of any drama or other reasons that may have drove you to your hiatus.  One of the biggest problems with taking a vacation from the arts is that 95% of the people that do (highly unproven non statistic based guess from decades in the arts) don’t ever come back.  Many people just get out of the habit and can’t get back, others feel embarrassed as their peers have continued on.  During your hiatus you may lose skills and not keep up with the pack.  It is quite likely that with your new, fresh boost in morale and energy given to you by your hiatus, that you will catch back up quickly upon your return.

Nintai